WHO Annual Report

03-2020 to 03-2021

1. Annual report on the agreed workplan
Describe progress made on the agreed workplan. For each activity, detail (1) the actions taken, (2) the outputs delivered, as well as (3) any difficulties that may have been encountered. Three responses are expected. [maximum 200 words per activity]. Indicate, if an activity has been completed previously, has not yet started or has been placed on hold.

Activity 1
Title: Providing technical support for strengthening trainings for T&CM practitioners with focus on primary health care

Description: Improving training programs for T&CM practitioners is critical in strengthening the quality, safety and effectiveness of its services. It was also identified as one of key priorities at the recent WHO Meeting on Strengthening Regulatory System for T&CM practitioners in the Western Pacific Region held on 9-10 September in Melbourne, Australia. This activity will also contribute to Regional Strategy for Traditional Medicine in the Western Pacific (2011-2020) and strategic objective 2 of the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy 2014-2023 (i.e. to strengthen quality assurance, safety, proper use and effectiveness of T&CM by regulating T&CM products, practices and practitioners). The centre will support WHO to strengthen regional capacity in T&CM education by providing technical support to Member States in improving training programs for T&CM practitioners. WHO will use their technical expertise, experiences and trainings to support Member States based on specific requests from Member States.

Facing the COVID-19 pandemic, the center adopted virtual technology to facilitate online training courses to global T&CM primary care practitioners, strengthened the Chinese medicine curriculum standardization and quality assessment with aim to improve the training quality and embody T&CM advantages during the challenging period.

The center launched a training program featuring TCM Classic Formula tailored for over 130 Singaporean T&CM practitioners. The online program illustrated on the proper use of TCM herbal formula in clinical cases. Students were profoundly illuminated by the “patient-syndromes-formula” mechanism in TCM.

The center deepened collaboration with Swiss Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine, UK Shulan College of Chinese Medicine, Australian West Sydney University and RMIT University to provide joint Chinese medicine training including degree programs and continued education for T&CM practitioners.

The center completed TCM Cultural Experience Online Program facing at 180 plus young Chinese Medicine practitioners in Argentina and Chile. Consisting of modules including Mandarin, Chinese medicine, TCM culture and Chinese medicine characteristic courses, the program utilized live teaching, cloud tour, virtual simulation experience to ensure a high quality learning experience. The two-week training facilitated a deeper understanding of TCM in South America.

The center initiated the academic cooperation with University of Fribourg, Switzerland by integrating modules of clinical treatment of Chinese medicine, Chinese Medicine culture into Fribourg medical master degree program.

Activity 2
Title: Promote consumer awareness on T&CM practices and products to improve their rational use

Description: Various modalities of T&CM are often used by the public without proper consultation with licensed T&CM practitioners in many countries of the Region. In addition, T&CM services and products are advertised through diverse communication channels, including SMS. Thus, improving rational use of T&CM by the public has been one of key priorities and strategic actions identified in the Regional Strategy for Traditional Medicine in the Western Pacific (2011-2020), specifically to achieve the second strategic objective which is to promote safe and effective use of T&CM. The deliverables will support WHO in improving the public awareness on T&CM services and products and enhance rational use of it in Member States.

The center contributed to fighting against COVID-19 by integrating TCM treatment, engaging in editing national guidelines of treating COVID-19, and popularizing the use of TCM among the public for preventing the virus. To assist more people to properly use T&CM against COVID-19, the center carried out a series of online lectures and demonstrations successively for the Guyana consulate community, the Maltese public, overseas alumni, students and staff. By lecturing on how properly use TCM for COVID-19 prevention and treatment and demonstrating Taiji and acupoint massage, the center raised the awareness of using T&CM against the epidemic.

The center collaborated with National University of Ireland, Galway to facilitate enhancing proper TCM knowledge and acupuncture short-term training program for local community, which was one of the priorities of Confucius Institute of Chinese and Regenerative Medicine established under the partnership. By TCM cultural promotion activities and joint research on COVID-19 pathological mechanism in combination of Chinese and western medicine, the center gradually promoted the understanding and recognition of traditional Chinese medicine in Europe.

Meanwhile, the center continued to support the development of Chinese Medicine Confucius Institute in Melbourne by optimizing the online courses including TCM clinical Chinese, TCM terminology, etc., with aim to provide a new path for the in-depth understanding of TCM in Australia.

Activity 3
Title: Provide support for development of norms, standards and technical documents on T&CM, including technical documents on research methodologies on T&CM

Description: WHO will support countries to improve national capacities for evidence-based T&CM practice. For this, generation of evidence is critical; however, developing appropriate research methodologies for it has been one of key challenges. The CC has capacity to support WHO in contributing technical input to the development of guidelines and research methodologies. WHO will use the to support Member States in improving evidence-based T&CM practices depending on their own context and capacities.

The center actively provided input of global review for the technical document  WHO benchmarks for training in Anthroposophic Medicine 2^nd-comment Review-draft and  First Global Review –draft WHO benchmarks for training in Yoga as part of the implementation of the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy. As per the WHO document development process, the initial draft document was reviewed and discussed by a group of experts organized by the center, providing minimum standards for professional education & practice, ensuring professional proficiency and patient safety. The review is not only related to the technical content but also the general scope and applicability of the draft document to strengthen quality assurance, safety, proper use and effectiveness of T&CM.

Additionally, to share Chinese experience with international colleagues better in fighting COVID-19 and display the unique advantages of TCM, the center organized experts to translate TCM Diagnosis and Treatment Guidelines of COVID-19 into Persian version. The version has been officially approved by the Translation Committee of the World Federation of Chinese Medicine Societies, and was released globally in April to improve the rational use of T&CM. It is also the center’s attempt to achieve one of the strategic objectives of the WHO Traditional Medicine Strategy: 2014-2023 by assisting in regulating T&CM practices.

Activity 4

Title: Provide support for information-sharing on integration models of T&CM for palliative care

Description: Member States have developed their own pathways to integrate T&CM appropriately depending on their own contexts and situation. While they make efforts to identify appropriate integration models, Member States ask for WHO's support to learn other Member States' experiences and different service delivery models on how T&CM can be integrated. With increasing burden of management of noncommunicable diseases and chronic conditions, palliative care has been identified as one of key areas where Member States want to explore integration of T&CM for. Based on requests from Member States and

the CC's expertise, the CC will support WHO in sharing integration models of T&CM, with focus on identification of key elements for integration with focus on palliative care, with Member States.

Palliative care is an integral part of tumor comprehensive treatment in the Oncology Department of the center’s affiliated hospital, and its role becomes increasingly important. Although the concept of introducing palliative care at early stage has been advocated, most patients actually receive palliative care relatively late, often after enduring all anti-tumor drugs or at the end of life. Traditional Chinese medicine oncology is an indispensable part of palliative treatment in China’s oncology model. TCM treatment runs through the whole treatment process, e.g. to use herbal formula, acupoint massage and Tuina to ease the pain, to relieve the syndromes in the digestive tract etc., which also reflects the treatment mode of early palliative care. Survival with tumor is an important academic feature of palliative care of traditional Chinese medicine oncology, and is the core of palliative treatment of traditional Chinese medicine tumor. In palliative care of tumors, the evaluation criteria of solid tumors after treatment do not fully reflect their efficacy. Therefore, it is necessary to establish an evaluation system suitable for traditional Chinese medicine or integrated Chinese and Western medicine oncology to reflect the value of palliative care. Throughout numerous clinical studies, TCM has achieved good results in palliative care. Therefore, the center advocates that TCM should intervene early in the treatment of advanced tumors and run through the whole treatment process.

2. Annual report on other activities requested

Should WHO have requested activities in addition to the agreed workplan, please describe related actions taken by your institution [maximum 200 words]. Please do not include in this report any activity done by your institution that was not requested by and agreed with WHO.

No.

3.Resources

Indicate staff time spent on the implementation of activities agreed with WHO (i.e. those mentioned in questions no. 1 and no. 2 above). Do not include any data related to other activities done by your institution without the agreement of WHO. Please indicate staff time using the number of “full-day equivalents” – a day of work comprising 8 hours (e.g. 4 hours work per day for 7 days should be recorded as 3.5 full-day equivalents).

Number of staff involved (either partially or fully)

Number of full-day equivalents, total for all staff involved

Implementation of the agreed workplan activities (i.e. those mentioned in questions no. 1 and no. 2 above) normally require resources beyond staff-time, such as the use of laboratory facilities, purchasing of materials, travel, etc. Please estimate the costs of these other resources as a percentage of the total costs incurred (e.g. if you incurred costs of USD 100 and the value of your staff time was USD 50 which makes the total of USD 150, please report 33.3% and 66.7%).

4. Networking

Describe any interactions or collaboration with other WHO Collaborating Centres in the context of the implementation of the agreed activities If you are part of a network of WHO Collaborating Centres, please also mention the name of the network and describe your involvement in that network [maximum 200 words].

Facing the global COVID-19 crisis, the center organized TCM experts to publish an online lecture titled "The Theory of Epidemic Febrile Diseases" posted on the Supercourse website linked to Department of Epidemiology, University of Pittsburgh, a former WHO CC. It demonstrated the center’s efforts to integrate Chinese medicine theories with Epidemiological analysis and public health management.

The center attended the virtual seminar on connecting WHO CCs in the Western Pacific Region during the COVID-19 response. It was an opportunity for the heads of the centers to learn the roles of WHO CCs and vis-à-vis current programme priorities of WHO, to share presentations by selected WHO CCs on their efforts related to the response and discussion on how to strengthen the WHO CC network’s collaboration on COVID-19.

In December 2020, the center held the Joint Conference of International Acupuncture Training Centers in China, which is an established joint conference mechanism together with Shanghai University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, a WHO CC based in Shanghai and China Academy of Chinese Medical Sciences, Institute of Acupuncture and Moxibustion, a WHO CC based in Beijing. Annually, the three WHO CCs gather together in the joint conference to discuss future development and resource-sharing, with aim to establish global acupuncture training platform and provide excellent teaching media for international students under the COVID-19 epidemic circumstances. The center also joined the WHO CC network in China in seek of information sharing and collaboration.